Abstract
In 2007, when I began my doctoral research exploring illicit maritime activities and the operation of offshore radio piracy, a set of conditions seemed central to making sense of the maritime world: marginality, liminality and otherness. In traditional geographic thinking, the sea has been thought of as an edge space that exists in a binary relationship with the land. The beach is typically positioned in the middle – a space socially and spatially ‘in between’. In Christoph Singer’s book, the central focus is on this intermediate space and the shifting, unstable and transformative nature of the shore – a zone that exists not simply between land and sea, but that also belongs to both spheres. Through reading a range of literature from Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest’ to Banville’s ‘The Sea’, Singer takes these long-held theories and unpacks them in the transition spaces of shore, beach and river bank. As Singer himself notes, the beach is a ‘third space’ where transformation is spatialized (p. 11).
Accordingly, Singer’s book is a rich account of how notions of ambiguity, liminality and transgression (themes which structure the three substantial sections of the text) play out through the characters, narratives and discourses of the ‘watery’ books he investigates. For Singer, these environments of flux provide a setting that reflects the instability of plotline and the crisis of the protagonists. However, while the book provides a very detailed and readable textual analysis of the literary sources under examination (from Stevenson’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ to Garland’s ‘The Beach’), the enduring and now well-established ideas that frame the discussion limit the novelty of the book. Indeed, in seeking to argue that the shore (and the characters that occupy it) are in a state of change and flux – betwixt and between – the analysis often works to reify engrained distinctions and dualisms, even as it attempts to move beyond such divisions (an issue Singer himself acknowledges). Back in 2007, I found the same issue when employing these spatial debates in my own research (leading, ultimately, to their abandonment).
Instead, Singer may have benefited from focusing less on overarching (fundamental, but now quite dated) theories of spatiality, and more on the wealth of work concerned with ships, seas and shores which is providing alternate ways of thinking through the emergent and shifting characteristics of such fluid worlds. Moreover, while strongly evidenced with materials from the texts examined, Singer’s book feels overly long, and is, at times, repetitive. Some careful editing may have helped streamline the text and in turn, produced a more effective argument. That said, Singer illustrates – with real mastery – how to analyse textual sources geographically – shining light upon how spatiality is used by authors, both literally and metaphorically. Accordingly, as literary geographies continue to grow in importance, this book provides a useful addition in demonstrating how plot, page, space and place intersect.